Industry and location intelligence
Manufacturing benchmarks you can trace back to the source.
Manufacturing Compass turns official U.S. government statistics into clear comparisons by industry and location, covering employment, wages, establishments, and more. Every figure will cite its source.
Specification · Sheet 01
Industry × state profile
| Field | Source | Type |
|---|---|---|
| Employment | QCEW | Published |
| Establishments | QCEW | Published |
| Average annual pay | QCEW | Published |
| Location quotient | QCEW | Published |
| Plant-size mix | CBP | Published |
| Value added per employee | EC | Calculated |
Data status
First dataset live: manufacturing employment, establishments, and wages by state (BLS QCEW, 2022–2025). Other planned sources are not yet integrated.
Explore state data01Audience
Built for people who make manufacturing decisions
Official data is public but scattered across agencies, formats, and release schedules. We bring it together in one place.
- Executives and business leaders
- See how an industry is growing or shrinking, and how states compare, before committing to expansions, new lines, or new markets.
- Plant and operations managers
- Put local wage levels and workforce conditions in context when planning staffing and labor budgets.
- Supply chain and continuous-improvement teams
- Understand where an industry's establishments are concentrated and how plant sizes vary by state.
- Analysts and consultants
- Get clean, sourced figures with reference periods and methodology notes that are ready to cite in your work.
- Site-selection and workforce planners
- Compare industry concentration, establishment counts, and pay across locations on a consistent basis.
02Capabilities
What we're building
- 01Planned
Industry profiles
National employment, establishments, wages, and five-year trends for manufacturing industries.
- 02Live
Industry × state comparisons
Manufacturing and its 21 subsectors in every state against the U.S., including location quotients. Plant-size mix is planned.
- 03Planned
Labor-cost and wage benchmark
An interactive calculator comparing your figures with published averages. Your inputs stay in your browser.
- 04Live
Methodology and source notes
Data rules are published, and each state page cites its BLS source file, reference period, and calculations.
03Data standard
Every number labeled for what it is
Credibility comes from being clear about the difference between official statistics, our own calculations, and things the public data can't support.
Published
Shown as the agency released it
Employment, wages, establishments, and location quotients, cited to the exact source and period.
Calculated
Derived, with the formula shown
Ratios and growth rates computed from a single source and clearly labeled as our calculations.
Not offered
Not supported by public data
Firm-level KPIs such as OEE, scrap rate, or profit percentiles. We won't estimate what we can't defend.
04Sources
Official U.S. statistical programs
QCEW is integrated and powers the State data pages. The others are planned.
- QCEWQuarterly Census of Employment and WagesIntegratedU.S. Bureau of Labor StatisticsQuarterly
- CBPCounty Business PatternsPlannedU.S. Census BureauAnnual
- ECEconomic Census: ManufacturingPlannedU.S. Census BureauEvery five years (most recent: 2022)
- OEWSOccupational Employment and Wage StatisticsPlannedU.S. Bureau of Labor StatisticsAnnual